Real Simple Syndication (RSS) and other Internet syndication schemes allow Internet users to aggregate the content provided by a plurality of different websites into a single webpage and/or program so that the user does not have to continuously visit a large number of sites. The user can subscribe to a content provider's syndication feed using a syndication aggregator, such as, for example, My Yahoo!, which is provided by Yahoo! Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. Syndication protocols allow content providers to transmit a variety of different content. For example, an RSS feed can be used to transmit the latest headlines on a news website and can also be used to transmit audio and video.
One problem for some content providers, particularly of provider's of large media files, is that success leads to an open-ended expense in terms of the cost of hosting the content. As more people download the content through their aggregators, the more money the content provider has to pay to support the hosting of the content. In addition, it takes a large amount of time and effort to continuously create new content in a timely fashion and with sufficient quality. Furthermore, in an effort to obtain paying members of an Internet service, a content provider may want to limit some syndicated content to paying members.